Burnin' Love (1)

Recruits

♣️Season 2, Episode 11♣️

Nicole holds Ember to her chest with a carrier, bouncing slightly as she folds some laundry in the bedroom while Matt sleeps.

"You're up early," Matt's voice startles her from behind.

"Oh, yeah, well, Em was up pretty early this morning, so I fed her, got her ready for the day and we went for a little run," Nicole tells him, continuing to fold.

"A little nervous energy, maybe?" Matt asks, sitting up on the edge of the bed as he studies his fiancee.

"No, nothing of the sorts. Why would you even think that?" Nicole waves the thought off.

Matt peaks around her, "Then why are you reorganizing the same drawer you reorganized yesterday?"

Nicole pauses, looking at the shirt in her hand before slowly setting it down and turning to Matt, "Because I realized I liked it better the other way. No reason to think I'm nervous. Now, we've gotta leave soon."

He smiles, stretching slightly, "Good. Cause I'm ready to be back. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health and you made sure to get every second opinion that you could," Matt jokes, standing up before starting to fall down.

She quickly helps steady him, one hand out to help Matt and one holding Ember's head to her chest, "Babe? Babe, you okay?" Matt starts laughing, showing that he is completely fine which Nicole shoves him for, "Don't do that to me! Don't do that again!"

"I'm sorry. I won't," Matt says, nodding before kissing her deeply, before breaking away and kissing the top of Ember's head, "Love you."

"Love you too, now, go get ready," Nicole pushes him away to go get ready, taking a deep breath and letting her smile fade away when Matt was out of the room and mumbling to herself and Ember, "He's gonna be okay. Daddy's just fine. No need to worry."

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The group is all gathered on the apparatus floor to welcome Matt back, "Welcome back, Lieutenant! Any harm in the old noggin up there?" 

"Nope. All good," Matt smiles, "Just ready to be back to work."

Nicole smiles, kissing his cheek, "I gotta go find out about Dawson's replacement, you good without me?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Go, be the best PIC," He pats her back before turning to talk to Herrmann.

"Hey, Nic," Kelly jogs to catch up with her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "How have you been holding up? You haven't been answering any of my calls or texts."

"Oh, right, sorry. Ember and Matt have kept me pretty busy on my off days. Nothing to worry about."

"Nicole," Kelly pulls out the full name, "I'm worried about you. You were the one to catch Matt when he passed out on the scene. The one that he was trapped in with a baby. That's got stir up some feelings."

"Kelly, I appreciate your concern, but it's misplaced. Don't worry about it and focus on helping those recruits that you're training or helping Clarke beat the murder charge. I'm fine."

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Nicole walks into the briefing room, side-stepping the fight of Shay v. Tony. She instead moves to sitting in one of the chairs by the window and not getting into all of the excitement which Kelly, Matt and Herrmann took notice of, sharing a look.

"Okay!" Boden comes in, raising his voice to get everyone's attention, "I have just heard from CPD. Clarke is out on bond. He will remain on suspension until further notice."